The mummy, bound with linen stuck together with plaster, was in a brightly coloured wooden sarcophagus buried near a temple from the era of the warrior king Thutmose III.

The tomb was likely to have belonged to a nobleman, Amenrenef, who would have been a servant of the royal household, the ministry said.

The archaeological team’s head, Myriam Seco Alvarez, said the mummy was adorned with many colourful decorations recalling religious symbols from ancient Egypt, such as the goddesses Isis and Nephtys displaying their wings, and the four sons of Horus.

Evidence suggests that the practice of wrapping bodies to preserve them after death in Egypt dates back as far as 4500BC.